Jumat, 23 Mei 2014

What Is Sociology?

Sociology is the study of what individuals and groups do, in relation to
each other. Because of that in-relation-to-each-other part, sociologists call
the conduct they study interpersonal or social
behavior. The other, referred to in the phrase “in relation to each other,” could
be one other person in direct physical contact with you. Or, other could refer to everyone else in the world, whom you are
considering in the abstract.

Sociologists say that all the social ‘relating’
or interaction you have engaged in thus far in your life will affect how you
decide to act in the here-and-now. For example, imagine you are in a room by
yourself; deciding what to do with some alone-time you have right now. A
sociologist would say, you at least think
about how other people would react if they were
to see you engage in the behavior you are contemplating. Because you have at
least considered how others would react to what you are about to do, even how
you act in solitude is, in a sense, social.

Sociologists also study how and why people behave socially as they do; how and why their behavior
changes (or doesn’t) over time, and how changes—innovations—in social behavior
spread from the few who “invented” the changes, to much larger social groups.

Sociologists may study social behavior
and group processes within a single society. Or, they may study these phenomena
in two or more societies, then compare the groups.

The size and scope of a sociologist’s
research project, as well as the methods (s)he uses to do the research, will
vary according to the theoretical perspective (s)he adheres to, the types of
behavior or processes (s)he is interested in studying and, of course, realities
like funding and staff resources.

Depending on the range of persons or
groups studied, the length of time they are studied, and which tools a
sociologist uses to measure, record and analyze the data (s)he collects, a
sociologist is said to ‘do’ either macro
sociology or micro
sociology.

Macro sociologists are like photographers
who shoot their photos using a wide-angle lens. They would rather fit a lot of
people into each frame than get detailed images of just a few of them. By
contrast, micro sociologists are like photographers who use a zoom lens. They
focus on only a few people at a time so they can capture a lot of detail about
each person.